[JURIST] The US military has appointed a three-star general to take over the investigation into alleged abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST Hot Topic] and extended the deadline for completion until March 31. Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall "Mark" Schmidt will take over the investigation. The appointment of a higher-ranking officer to lead the probe allows higher-ranking officials to be questioned, including Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was in charge of the Guantanamo prisons for 18 months until being transferred to Iraq in April 2004. The US Southern Command [official website], which oversees the Guantanamo Bay military base, did not indicate what other officers would be questioned by investigators. Military rules require that any investigating officer outrank those being interviewed. The inquiry was opened in January after FBI documents were publicly released detailing abuses by interrogators. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination

March 21 is the International
Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination [UNESCO
factsheet].On March 21, 1804, the
Code Civil des Francais, the reformed French
civil law often referred to in French as the Code Napoleon, and in
English as the Napoleonic Code, went into effect in France, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and French colonies.

March from Selma begins

On March 21, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. began
his third march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to protest racial
discrimination in the Jim Crow South. By March 25, over 25,000
people lead by Dr. King reached Montgomery, Alabama. Specifically,
the march called attention to suppression of African-American voting
rights and a police assault on a civil rights demonstration three
weeks prior.Five months
later, in August 1965, Congress passed the Voting
Rights Act. Read a history
of the march from Selma to Montgomery and a history
of the Voting Rights Act.